28 Dec 2008

Thanks Matt_ARCHANGELS for linking me to THIS website which is a English to Eldar (by someone who has far too much time on their hands) so the name Istaur means silence and that is going to be the name of my Eldar force. Although I may go with IstaurWe which means Silent singing... let's give the Imperial Guard pub band a run for their money

I've decided to buy the two units of avengers and a wave serpent but not from GW but from Wayland Games (absolutely brilliant site, not sure what the postage is like to the US but UK peeps should shop here)

I still went to GW today as I was going to buy the Codex, which they were completly out of stock! So i bought some paints, brushes, battlefield accesories kit, a dice cube and a decent tape measure.

27 Dec 2008

So... I hope everyone had a great christmas, i know i did it wasn't a very warhammery one I got the space marine codex but thats all but i do have just under £70 that means one thing ELDAR ARE EN ROUTE!!!

The only problem is that with the army i want to take it doesn't include any guardians (or the war walker) because I was gonna start out by buying the Battleforce (5 avengers, wave serpent, 10 guardians and a war walker) but I'm wandering whether i should just buy a wave serpent and two units of avengers as it's about £6 more but i get stuff I'm actually going to use only problem is I need to make up my mind by tomorrow as I'm going into Chalmsford to visit one of my friends (god his wife teases me about playing with 'toy soldiers' so at some point I'm gonna go into town and GW (I very rarley get to go to one as the nearest one to me is 2 hours away) where I'm going to buy it (I'd rather pay that bit extra and get them tommorow (it's not that much more counting P&P ect.) so, Battle force or not?

Also a little update: I completed Gears of war 2 :), but I have failed on my farseer rather epicly (should have made a test modle first (the damn thing is gonna need stripping) so I'm sorry to say Ron that there's about an 80% chance that I will not actually be finished for the contest date... I can hardly get this thing painted let alone do a base... I'm sorry.

So a hand would be appreciated on deciding and any craftworld name suggestions are still open

19 Dec 2008

right so eventually my farseer arrived today along with a little suprise...for some reason they had included a dwarf engineer in my order, free of charge aswell, i don't play dwarves nor plan to but whose gonna turn down free warhammer? not me anyway

I got the farseer that i wanted aswell out of the randomized bunch (singing spear with the rock on hand :P ) so i can convert the runes using that hand.

18 Dec 2008

So with my farseer still somewhere in the post (hence the name of the post) I thought I might start writing a bit of fluff for my eldar force... then i though nah! but i couldn't find anything better to do so here it is. I started off my 'Commands from the webway' book. It was only a few brief notes and I still forgot some of it as I woke up in the morning fully clothed with a pencil in my hand in an arm chair... I can't say that's ever happened before without any drinking involved, anyway here's a bit of background (I'm not gonna interrupt this with my normally abundant ellipses and brackets :P ) And don't yell at me for not having a name yet, eldar names are a bit obscure so it's hard to think of one (I'll edit it in this post when I think of one) Also I'm thinking of a few custom rules to put into affect being my own unique... thing.

Craftworld _______ was one of the first craftworlds that took to the skies, it was involved in a great conflict with the forces of chaos. A chaos sorcerer banished the world to the warp and there it stayed for many years fighting the forces of Chaos, the warriors of became ruthless killers, having seen many terrors in the grips of chaos. After returning into the known universe when a violent warpstorm in the Kuarava system bought the craftworld back from the warp when the warpstorm came into contact with an ancient webway gate. ________ have forever since been silent warriors for the terrors they witnessed very nearly drove them into insanity and they made a vow to never speak of it again, the ________'s warriors instead communicate through telepathy each with an adept knowledge of psychic powers. Through their intense fighting with chaos each warrior has become fearless in the face of terror and have shown legendary efficiency at combat the reaper launchers of the skull faced dark reapers and the legendary power weapons of the howling banshees, who have reproduced their physical cries of mourning for a psychic barrage of noise. The craftworld has gone down in legend as the defenders from the tide of chaos.

Here's a few custom rules i think I'll see if I can put into affect.

-Being in the warp so long many of the members of craftworld _______ have been slain except the best warriors, to represent this no guardian units may be take (this includes pilots)

-Dire avengers may pilot vehicles (adding the point difference between a guardian and an avenger (this will increase the ballistics skill of the vehicle)

-Being very adept psykers therefore every unit with LoS to a farseer or warlock may use his/her leadership, vehicle LoS for this can only be drawn from firing points or cockpits (heh heh sorry couldn't stop myself) jetbikes are included in this as they are concentrating on driving their vehicles so cannot turn to look, farseers in transports cannot be used (except for any squad inside with him/her)

-To balance the rule above if no farseers are left alive every single unit suffers a -1 Ld modifier as the farseer boost the psyhcic abilities of those nearby so there would be a lack of communication between squads.

- ______'s warriors are resistant to all vocal based effects (cry of war or something like that (other howling banshees come to mind))

-Spirit stones MUST be taken on Farseers

-At least one Farseer must be included in the force

-At least one farseer must have the 'Doom' Phsychic power

-At least one unit of both Howling banshees and Dark reapers must be taken to represent the legendary aspect warriors of the craftworld.

-When mind war succsefully kills a model you must yell 'MIND CRUSH' for no good reason

-Warlocks may take two warlock powers at an additional 15Pts per model (eg. conceal and emboldment (which would probably be quite a good combo))

-Autraches may not be taken as ________ are psyker elites

Any suggestions on changing the custom rules, suggesting a name, or any additional rules you might include (or any you'd remove entirely)

16 Dec 2008

I've finished painting the nobs and did a few touch ups on my warboss (i only notice these things when i look at them on a picture) I'm about 1/8 done of my orks (doing them all together so not one is actually finished) I've also completed one deffcopter, but I have broken off at least one propeller ON EVERY SINGLE ONE!!!

The Royal Mail is on holiday already it seems my farseer was dispatched over a week ago now (first class) and I really want to (and need to for the challange) get started, I also bought some razor wire to use to make the runes

Firefox is mucking me around not saving my: blogger, Youtube, disqus, googlemail, kongregate and facebook are all messing me around not saving the log ins when i close my browser or turn off my computer.

Christmas is just round the corner , I've bought presents for my friends but being in a family of six (and a labradour) I'm broke and still need to buy them presents...I put the monster of a chrismas tree off (had to trim about a foot off so it could stand up properly inside) it now looks very pretty :) (are guys allowed to say that?)

CURSES!!! my network at work has changed and it incorparates a lot stricter filters so I can't look at all your blog posts as much as i'd like (Only on my breaks (I swear)) this also means I'll have even less updates on my blog, but the holidays are just around the corner and I hope to get a lot of Hobby stuff done (we clost compeletley over christmas and newyear I think my holiday is this firday until... the seventh of january... I think) and with the holidays just round the corner (especially you drax with your school holidays :P ) i hope to see a lot of activity on the blogs as I'm out of black library stuff to read... and i can't sleep if i don't read... seriously... not a wink

10 Dec 2008

You know the saying... or you might not... no bus's for hours and then they all come at once, yes 3 posts (well this is number 4) in 2 days and why not :P

Just a heads up for tomorrow I'm gonna post a guide on easy ruin bases that were made... easily...

If anyone has any feedback about my orks (after investigating the pictures i found a great many imperfections on my warboss :P oh well) i know three of them are only primed and I do know that mr. eagle eye (seriously someone posted that as a comment as if i hadn't noticed (I deleted it afterward :P ))

So I painted up the black reach marines ages ago but i thought i'd finally get onto the orks. I do like orks as they are a change to my normally favoured 'shooty' armies and I'm considering making these up to a real ork army after my eldar. I'm not really using a clan as such i just want a horde unit with a few units of elites really (mostly nobz hiding behind the large boyz units) but I probably won't get round to doing that until this time next year but who cares!

Here's just a few pictures of the Warboss and his nobz (Heh heh heh It's so funny discussing tactics with nobz with ork players :P ) the nob unit is about half finnished and the warboss needs to have a few things done like his gun barrels drilled out but nothing too major. I would have waited until i had finished them all but i wanted to test out my new (and poorly made photo box which will work better once i work out how to turn the flash off)

So I've been surfing looking up on tips on free-handing ect. after seeing Jawaball's amazing Banner (the videos are on youtube) so I thought I'd brush up (no pun intended...okay maybe a little) so here's what i've learnt:

-Always rince the brush throroughly after each colour, especially went painting tiny details, use warm water and brush soap (if you don't have any get some it's brilliant stuff and can rescue the brushes with huge globs of dried on paint) make sure you dry it well afterwards as you don't want the next colour to run

-Use tiny amounts of paint, as small as you can really

-Free handing is not really based on you're painting skill it's more your drawing skill, if needbe use one of those pens (can't be any other help i don't have one yet myself) and mark out a rough design

-Never drink or eat any food stuffs containing caffine or a large amount of sugar before free-handing (or whilsts) as these will make your hands shake making it all but impossible to paint accuratley

-Practice drawing, a good idea is to actually draw the design you want to paint first as you'll be used to the design

-Paint everyday (not neciserily free handing), even if it's litrelly only for 5 minutes as this will make your painting much more... good

-Speaking of lines draw basic shapes with a paint brush (use a colour you use very little of or have a lot of) because most designs are just made up of basic shapes and the detail is added in later.

-If you are trying something really hard make sure you leave the previous colour to dry COMPLETLY before applying the next as you can just use a wet paper towel or something to wipe it off quickly so you don't spoil your design

-You want you're really ambitiously painted HQ units to look great, so practice it on things like seargens, vehicles so you get a better feel for free-handing

In the end it's mostly down to you're drawing skill (epic fail for me) and practice makes perfect... although nobodys perfect... so whats the point in practicing? Okay ignore that practice does make you better.

Hope some of these have been useful and if not... damn

P.S. (my initials which is kinda weird) I've just started listening to 40K radio and Worlds end radio. two warhammer based podcasts, I've also downloaded an episode of Podhammer which is an entirely fantasy based one but i'm yet to listen to it. I think you should at least have a listen of one or two, i like to listen to this stuff when painting rank-and-file minis which can get very tiring after a while.

9 Dec 2008

Right so a lot of you may have noticed... or maybe not. But i haven't put a post up for over a fortnight (i think) It has partially been life but the main reason is, I bought an Xbox 360 off a friend on an absolute whim and so i've been having fun with that.

The only hobby stuff I've done is paint up a 15 warriors of Minis Tirith (5 spear, 5 sword, 5 bow) a flag bearer and Boromir. I don't play the game, i used to but at the time (it was many years ago now) i found the might/will/fate rules hard and frustrating and hard to play (although i like how heros just pwnd in it)

I thought I'd just add a quick tutorial for painting ruins (not just my easy ones) it's not in great detail or anything just... well it works!

1: Prime the ruin (be careful if it is carboard as if you use too much the cardboard with warp) a spray or textured paint is prefrable

2: Use a relitivley dark grey (i don't have a white dwarf at hand for the colour thing or recall them from memory) and base coat the ruin, don't be too through leave some of the primer visable

3: Use a lighter grey and drybrush the entire model and highlight any detail you may or may not have

4: using the same method the heavy metal team used to paint wood on the Chaos lord shield (if there's any on the model)

5. Base it as you like, modelling sand, flock ect.

I know it's breif and sorry about the lack of pictures but if you really have no clue i hope it's been some help.

An a lighter note, i've just ordered my farseer that i'm entering in the basing competition (yeah, yeah i haven't started yet) hopefully that'll be here on saturday so i can have a good look at it on the sunday (christmas offically starts on saturday the trees looking rather sad lying on the patio outside, Jetta (my labradour) is very intigued by it and she'll go and look at it every time she goes out to do her... buisness here's a picture of her...

24 Nov 2008

Here are a few tips to increase your gaming pleasure I use most of these :P

Wound markers - don't use dice, use MMs, skittles, smarties, fruit pastels. Hero takes a wound oh well get a sweet-You could also do this for every model now don't you regret your not Orks or IG

The winner is! - put a reward up for the winner it doesn't need to be anything big, some spare wound markers for instance :P or free drinks later in da pub

Imiagination - Make up your own super monsters (que rending pony) and make your opponent put an entire army against it, do it like a Zelda boss of something where you need to do destroy different parts of it before it explodes into a large amount of molten plastic and you collect the heart container from... wait forget that last bit

Vary it - always playing against the same army try swapping, it can be good fun... or not...

Turn to the dark side - I hate it when the game ends on turn 5 with an epic clash lined up for the following turn (this works best with objective levels) just keep playing even after the winner is decided the last parts of the game are normally the most fun, play to the end!

23 Nov 2008

I have had an idea (que lightbulb) using wire I'm going to make runes out of the wire and suspend them in midair in-front of my farseer. So i want to pose/convert my farseer to make it look like s/he is writing them with some physic power (or something like that) I'm yet to work out how to suspend it (i might just use thinner wire or just not paint it)

Space marines:With: Space marines have access to a lot of special characters use them,Against: Plasma and power weapons are you're friends

Orks:With: Don't bother shooting with da boyz just runAgainst: Template weapons and Hi strength, low AP with lot's of shots, cause a moral tests, Use there own units for cover saves (they get in the way of each-other a lot)

Eldar:With: Farseers rule autraches are rubbish in comparison, Use small-ish (5) jetbike squads to capture/contest objectives on the last turn, Use guardians to look after you're own objective and use the Support platform to you're advanage and DOOOOOOOM!!! (Muhahahah!)Against: Decent AP, low-ish strenght weapons. Prioritise you're targets, especially howling banshees in transports

Imperial guard:With: Use as many blast weapons as possible, blast weapons don't miss!Against: Stay out of 12" wherever possible, Use weapons with a range that beats lasguns. Use weapons with as many shots as possible

Tau:With: Detach the gun drones from vehicles, use pinning weapons to keep the enemy at arm's length, use kroot to pester the enemy, don't be careless with battlesuits they're not all that toughAgainst: Stay out of 12" until assualting, use fast moving troops (assualt marines) to tie up the units and then move the rank-and-file units in

21 Nov 2008

Right so you know i am going to start an eldar army so i've decided the model i'm going to enter into the competition:An eldar farseer

I'm going to mount it on a 40mm base instead of a 25mm1: so i can add a bit more detail to it2: it makes the model stand out more which is what you want on a HQ choice (I do it with all my HQs)

I'm yet to decide on a color scheme properly but i feel it will be quite dark with silver and a rich deep red cloak (Edit: I had originally posted clock :P ) I'm still not entirely sure but i want to theme my army around the nights sky so it will be nice to pick out bits of detail with silver on black.That's the plan anyway... I will post my failures... i mean progress as i go along (although I may not get the model for a while i can start the base (i have a lot of spare 40mm bases from cavalry model in LOTR (Don't ask (here's another bracket :P ))))

While a lot of people swear by priming with chaos black (well black) It's actually a much better idea to prime white. If you stop and think about it you can put dark colors on to white perfectly but you can't put light colors onto black. It usually ends up becoming streaky and you have to do several layers to get it looking good and especially painting on white as the painting corps did a tutorial on painting white over black you have to gradually layer it up (I'm not slagging off the tutorial or anything for bit of detail like terminator markings it looks even better than just white) whilst it's easy painting it onto a lighter (well lightest) color.

So really unless your model is actually black (I also recommend putting purity seal or something equivalent over black to make it look... better) try priming it white

17 Nov 2008

Right i hope to make this a weekly thing. It's a Monday (auto bad-mood) so i thought I'd have a random rant about something and then listen to the responses i get.

Transfers.How i hate them. It's the only easy/practical way to put on chapter markings, company markings est. and GW couldn't really have done a worse job of them.

1. There is very little 'space' between each of the transfers so even if you do avoid cutting the next one along you have very little room to hold the cut-out by and usually end up dropping them.

2. Wonky, there is absolute no-way of getting them straight, you could spend ages trying and it's not gonna happen. You can try moving it with your finger but it'll normally stick to your finger or rip speaking of ripping...

3. They rip so easily some of them, sometimes even before they're off the paper stuff (which sticks to the desk or whatever you leave it on whilst applying the transfer) i spent ages putting the large ultramarine transfer on my black reach dread only to have it rip after trying ages to get it straight. Also I wish they would include a spare of every one. If you ruin one for a squad of say, marines and then you either have to paint it on your self or buy a new transfer sheet.

I hope this has given you something to get angry about... wait that didn't sound right...

15 Nov 2008

Following the round table discussion on the units we never leave home without I thought I'd share some war stories about my devastators and their uncanny scatter rolls:

There is a friend at my club who plays blood angles and he has a 'super unit' of assault marines in one round of fire i managed to reduce the unit to a smoldering ash, apart from the captain who was saved by his storm shield but he failed his morale test and promptly left the battle.

I magnetize most of my special weapons troops (2 per tactial squad ect.) so that i can mix and match my weapons depending on which army i'm against (multi meltas aren't all that great against an ork horde) so recently i was playing an amoured company so i equiped missles, meltas that kinda thing, i managed to pop both of their land raiders and a rhino (which exploded badly damaging the marines hiding behind it (and in it))

But my best shot ever was when I was playing against Imperial guard (it was someone from my club and we were doing a bit of hobby shopping (the lovley new land raider for me)) in a GW and my plasma cannon shot scattered badly from the heavy weapon crews i was aiming for but landed on their command squad instead! I caused enough damage to force the unit to make a morale test... which they failed (douple six ouch) and the commisar stept up and executed his own commander! That was one of the few occasions i won against adam's Imperial guard and what an ironic way to take victory.

13 Nov 2008

Okay first things first. This is not a tutorial to make amazing pieces of scenery with the most expensive materials you can find this is a really quick, easy and cheap way to make a ruin and all you will need is:Scissors or a crafting knifeA reasonable amount of thick cardboardA small amount of thin cardboardSome old spruesGlueClippersA Pen

Step one:Easy cut out a square or rectangle out of the thicker cardboard

Step 2:Mark a jagged line through the middle connecting two opposite corners and cut them out

Step 3: Cut out a small piece of thin card to look a bit like old wood (Or use thick to make a ruined piece of floor) and glue these three pieces together

Step 4: Place the whole thing on a sheet of cardboard and draw round is smoothly leaving room around the edges then cut this out and stick the ruin to it

Step 5: Using more of the thin card cut out small rectangles (To represent brickwork) and stick these however you like onto the ruin

Step 6: Using a pair of clippers cleave up a couple of old sprues and stick it to the base around the ruin

Step 7: Using a pen you can add bullet holes by stabbing the cardboard.

Finished! (apart from the lack of paint) you can add any extra details in that you want (corpses, banners ect.)Some badly painted marines (WIP) defend themselves in a ruin

Oh and here's one I made earlier :P

You can also make smaller bits of terrain using sprue bits

Hope this has been useful. I may post a painting guide for it as well... don't hold your breath though.

9 Nov 2008

I've been reading up a bit on the Ulthwé fluff and it turns out they don't include many aspect warriors (Spare Dire Avengers) which isn't ideal if you want to base your army around dark reapers and banshees. So, I think I may invent my own craftworld (That Phoenix Lord Arsurmen retrieved from the midst of a warpstorm) and so I have a focus to write some fluff on (and i get to make my own colour scheme which I also just did with a tactial squad) so first things first... any suggestions of names anyone? (keeping in mind the banshees and reapers)Edit: here's the runes (I actually think their elvish but what the difference really) I tried inserting it into the post but it was too big (the actual size not the file size)

8 Nov 2008

Do you like the picture of the aspect portal there or shall i revert it?Edit: Right I've decided to not include it (here's a picture if you missed the brief time it was up(Pssst it's an aspect portal from Dawn of War) If anyone can come up with something better to put there or to use as my avatar please post a suggestion

So... I'm trying to get Disqus to work so this is really just a test...but i also have a question:When you put in a user name it asks you to begin and end with a number but no-one has any numbers on the comments posted does it ignore these numbers or what?Edit: just found it (seriously is it just me or is their website so slow)

6 Nov 2008

4 Nov 2008

Right a lot of people were very annoyed or very pleased about the new 'run' rule in 5edWhilst close combat armies (Orks, Tyranids) have had a great bonus able to potentially cover twice as much ground as they used to.But the more shooty armies (Tau, Imperial Guard) have had a huge blow losing out on an extra turn or two of shooting and in close combat (Tau especially) they get massacred.

The annoyance has got to a lot of people to the degree that they'll get a couple of throw away units (Heck I've even seen tactical squads all geared up with chain swords and bolt guns) to go and intercept them on the way... although this doesn't work either as you can't shoot at the enemy whilst there in combat so I wanted to start a little debate about countering the run or using it to your advantage (Post ideas as comments)

2 Nov 2008

Right, so a lot of you who go into GW have seen the 40K scenery (The imperial sector stuff) if anyone has bought any could you please take a picture of the sprues (with something there for scale) so that i might attempt to remake it without having to buy the expensive plastic kit. I will make printable templates if i am succsessful for readers to download and make their own.

Right so if you look on ++FROM THE WARP ++ (seriously whats with the +s?) you'll know that this months 'challenge' for the FtW blogger group is to create your own scenario to go into a community scenario pack... thing...Well i sped ahead with mine doing literally as soon as I got it (5 minute challenges come on Ron!) I won't reveal what it's about but it's done... hooray!

1 Nov 2008

Right some of you may be wandering why my blog is called 'The Aspect Portal' some of you may recognize this from Dawn of War (the Eldar building that produces infantry units) This is because I'm going to start a new army (Eldar wow! what a great guess) from the craftworld Ulthwé. I have chosen this as i love the color scheme and I hope to base my army mainly around howling banshees and dark reapers (which fit into the color scheme well) I've been wanting to do this for a while now and haven't got round to it, I hope to start around January/February (Christmas is too expensive) and will write guides on how i paint them; battle reports on how i play them and will be making some very eldar scenery (some of which will be adapted from dawn of war buildings) so sit tight until then. (If you too are looking to start a new eldar army then this web page (actually this site has all the old GW articals on it some of which have been lost since the new one has been introduced) is great for choosing a craftworld)

31 Oct 2008

Right i think that the citadel Spray gun is a great idea (except having to buy propellant every now and again) but the silly thing is they've made another of their own product useless, of course I'm talking about the spray paints, Now that you can use any color really makes them totally pointless way to go shoot your selves in the foot.

30 Oct 2008

The wary Tactical squad Arthas of the Ultramarines second company trod as silently through the dense forest of the Tyranid infested planted Forsfarus VI. The trees blocked out what little light the three moons and stars provided. They made a short halt to rest their weary legs. They had been patrolling the perimeter of their forward command base on the planet and had constant guard patrols as the defenses were being built.

There had been no sight of the supposed Tyranid hordes that resided on the small planet of the Forsfarus system. The lieutenant sat on a dead tree trunk and put his bolt pistol down beside him. The other nine members of the squad did similar things the heavy bolter armed member almost collapsing under the wait of his heavy weapon as he sank to the soft forest floor. The entire squad was exhausted and without meaning to one by one the members fell into an uncomfortable sleep.

Lieutenant Horst woke with a start and looked around hurriedly "how could we let our guard down?" he asked himself out loud and he roused the other members of the squad. As they got to their feet unseen to them a pair of glowing eyes peered at them out of the gloom and it stalked away back into the shadows. "We should head back to the base, we're too weary to be any good for anything." Said Horst

The squad had just started walking when they heard a sharp snap from a few feet behind them. "what was that?" said one of the bolter armed marines as if he expected someone to know."I don't know, and i don't like it" Said Horst "Stay alert brothers there are many dark surprises lurking in this forest." No sooner has they started again they heard a sharp shriek from the darkness they each bought their weapons to bear and formed a rough circle of defense. Another shriek louder now and they heard many feet running stealthily through the darkness.

Suddenly a large Tyranid jumped out of the trees and ran at the Ultramarines it's teeth bared. Although caught by surprise the marines dispatched it with a few bolter rounds. Suddenly the were swarms of them erupting from the shadows the marines opened fire the flames of the flamethrower lit up the dark forest roasting the insects and setting the nearby trees alight. Three of the squad were slayed by the ferocity of the creatures charge Lieutenant Horst dispatching them with ruthless efficiency with his boltgun and chain sword, his great experience put to good use.

As quickly as it had begun the creatures disappeared back into the shadows. "This is punishment for our own ignorance," said Horst "Brave lives lost to alien scum!" he spat and pushing his pistol back into it's holster. "Come!" we need to get back to the base quickly. They set off at a paced run after one the squad members dropping his heavy bolter in favor of a plain bolter.

They had been running five minutes when out of no-where a huge scythed claw sliced through nearby trees and threw all five of the marines to the ground. The huge Carnifex roared and tore through some more nearby trees to take a look at it's prey. The huge insect roared and thrust one of it's claws into one of the marines. The rest of the squad scrambled to their feet and opened fire with their bolters ripping holes in the creatures protective exoskeleton. It screamed and dispatched another two of the marines with a swing which crushed them against a tree. Horst threw a grenade at the creature the shrapnel ripping through it. The creature roared in agony and fell dead on top of another marine. Horst heaved the creatures heavy corpse off his comrade and helped him to his feet. "Run!" he yelled as more Tyranids sprang out of the gloom after them. Horst and his final comrade sprinted as fast as their power amour would allow through the forest. They found the entrance to the compound using the last of their energy they ran but just in front of the gates another Carnifex sprang out roaring it's challange "FOR THE EMPEROR!" Horst yelled and swung his chain sword at the creatures leg cleaving it in two. The monster roared in return and slashed at the him narrowly missing him but hitting his comrade in the chest, he was thrown back into the oncoming horde and was ripped to pieces by the vicious beasts. Horst ducked under the Carnifex and made a last ditch attempt to make the compound.

He made it to the gate and it swung open revealing Brother Mortis the expeditions dreadnought the honored chapter warrior opened fire with both his assualt cannon and heavy flamer carving through the countless ranks of the tryanids lines. Horst scrambled through the gates and they swung closed behind him. The Tyranids beat on the gate but he was safe and he collapsed to the floor exhausted phisically and mentally with the loss of his brave battle brothers.

All warhammer enthusiasts have always had trouble with the sky high prices of the mini's paints and books. I have that trouble all the time...(I don't even have a proper army case i just use those small plastic boxes you get when you order a Chinese takeaway) so in the coming days/weeks/months? there will be tutorials making scenery out of rubbish (pizza boxes, tin cans...um...pizza boxes) to keep the cost of your war gaming down but there is little you can do to remedy the fact that the minis cost THE EARTH!

Sure you can look on ebay but that's only opportunity buying you can find you wave serpent for a fiver but most the time the stuff isn't much cheaper. I normally buy my minis (I'd just like you to know that I'm doing this off my own back and haven't had any contact with the sellers) from Wayland Games it has about 40% off everything! just a hand to keep the cost of your hobby down

Right at my local gaming club my friend Andrew has a big mega demon with all the upgrades and stuff (It's really just a purple Balrog model) and he was running (flying) around owning all of my Ultramarines when he finally got to my command squad. My command squad was normal enough but as my Commander i had Sicarius.

As you should know if you own the new space marine codex or have read the recent white dwarf then you will know that Sicarius can trade his close combat attack for a single coup de grace attack that causes instant death regardless of his opponents toughness (Now you can see where this is going)

His demon charged into combat with me now they both had the same initiative so we rolled off- it was a draw we rolled again - a draw (this was getting frustrating) we finally had a result the demon went first he rolled his demon weapon roll (+ 2D6 attack) and scored a double six so he made his 17 odd attacks with a grand total of 14 wounds so i made my invulnerable saves (or amour saves i can't rightly remember which one demon weapons prevent) I ended up with one wound left knowing i couldn't win anyway i made my coup de grace attack. 4 that's a hit, 6 that's a wound. He made his invulnerable save (2+) this was really tense moment in the game although i knew i couldn't win he still had most of his army comparatively unscathed. He rolled the dice and it fell off the table and landed on a six he swore (as you would it not counting on the floor) he rolled it again and it landed on a 1!

"The daemon roared as it fell to the floor mutilated by the great Sicarius' tempest blade. The daemon's corpse bubbled away out of existence. The battle scarred ultramarines yelled in triumph and charged their hated foes to their death but their glory would not soon be forgotten."